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Birthday Present Budgeting

Budgeting for Birthday Gifts

How much should you spend on birthday gifts? You could look at some of the surveys that are done to see what is the average spend on a birthday present, but you shouldn’t use this as a guide. Set and stick to a budget you’re happy with.

If you’re feeling generous then you’ll be able to spend more, and if you’re on a tight budget spend less. There’s ways of economising on presents so every birthday you celebrate can be fun!

If you’re on a small budget sometimes you can make it go further by buying several small items. This works well for children for whom there’s a lot of excitement in opening the present itself. For older children and adults this might not always work well. A subtle hint given the week before though will soften the blow for most people when you’ve got to stick to a very tight budget.

Buy the cheapest wrapping paper possible. Some people spend a fortune on ribbons and bows, and posh gift boxes. Buy cheap wrapping paper in bulk and use it for all your gift wrapping. Buy gift wrap that will be good for boys and girls, adults, birthdays and then Christmas too. Big rolls of cheap paper are a great budget saver. Buy cards in bulk too. Some shops on the high street have bargains where you can get several birthday cards for a pound! This makes them excellent value and if you keep them in a folder or drawer you’ll always have a card for that unexpected birthday too!

By ensuring the vast majority of the money is spent on the present and not the wrapping you get a much better balance.

To find innovative gifts on a budget you could look at making something yourself. A hand crafted gift can be a wonderful idea, especially if you have a skill like knitting or painting. Something personal can make a present so much more special. A hand-made gift might take a while to make though, so remember to start well in advance of the birthday!

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Presenting a New Concept Or Innovation to The Status Quo

Without passion, a presentation can turn into the proverbial nightmare. Especially when you are presenting a new idea to a group that has always done things the same way, and isn’t really looking for any new way to do anything. Still, if you are an innovative and inventive type of person it is hard for you to be involved in a group that refuses to progress forward.

There is nothing wrong with you; the problem is within the stagnation of the status quo running the organization. So what can you do, you ask?

Well let me explain how to present a new concept or innovation to the status quo, and why your passion, energy, and strength of character is needed to see this through. First of all, you must realize there will be people in the group that are not interested in anything you say, they don’t even want to be there listening to a new idea. You must not dwell on this or spend your time looking at these people and trying to convince them, you can’t, and they won’t change.

Also, you should not spend your time talking to people who agree with you and looking them in the eyes while giving your presentation, they are already on board and all you need to do is smile at them once in a while when giving your presentation. They are already on your team and will vote if it comes down to a vote for your new concept or innovation.

The people you need to concentrate on are those people who are on the fence, who perhaps make up portions of the leadership of the organization, but also generally go along with the flow and the general consensus of the group. They can be your change-makers and it makes sense to gear your talk and presentation towards them. I hope you will consider this advice and good luck in presenting.

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Article Writing – Are You a Shopping Channel Presenter Or a Teacher?

What is the difference between a shopping channel and a schoolteacher? If you don’t know, then perhaps you don’t watch enough shopping channels, which is entirely understandable. Personally I find any more than five minutes of viewing and my brain starts trying to crawl out of my ears.

However, the difference between the way that presenters work on the shopping channels and your teachers attempted to impart essential knowledge about oxbow lakes and differential equations is of great relevance when thinking about article marketing. The reason is that an astonishing number of articles seem to have been written by teachers, rather than by people who could work on the shopping channel and who are attempting to sell something.

Teachers teach, shopping channel presenters sell. What are your articles for if not for selling? But the tough aspect of article writing is that of course the more successful articles teach something at the same time, otherwise they’re not articles, they’re adverts.

When it comes to article writing it’s worth stopping for a moment and thinking about how to learn from each of these fairly contrasting types of people, applying aspects of each to your writing in order to improve both the standard and the effectiveness of your marketing articles.

If you think back to your school-days, and in particular to your teachers you might remember one, or if you’re lucky two, who really made a difference. But why was this? What was it that they did that made such a difference to both your enjoyment of learning and of their lessons?

One of the factors was probably humour. We all get a bit fed up of the dull and rather beige quality of writing on the web. Articles seem often to be devoid of much humour, and yet we all seem to pay more attention to things if there’s a little humour involved. Teachers who cracked the odd joke (even if they made you groan) probably had more of your attention that those who wouldn’t know a joke if it blew up in a chemistry lab.

But successful teachers would also often include a way of learning that maximised the chance of a ‘learning moment’. The ‘Eureka’ moment when a light bulb seems to switch on in your head and you realise that you’ve just understood something, or learned something new, can be tremendously powerful. Providing both humour and the occasional learning moment in your articles can be very powerful, but on their own they may well still restrict you to being categorised as a teacher.

One of the striking features about many of the best shopping channel presenters is not that they’re trying to lecture you or teach you, but are learning with you, discovering things at the same time, being surprised, and of course highly enthusiastic about it all. Appearing highly knowledgeable is certainly valuable and beneficial, but sometimes as article writers we need to be a little less didactic and rather more human. After all, it’s humans we’re trying to reach, not teach.

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